Enough Said: How to tell if you aren’t saving enough

Asking the question if you’re saving enough money might seem like an obvious answer when you are constantly asking why you don’t have anything leftover after you pay your bills. But as seemingly simple as that might be, you still have a majority of people who aren’t sure where they’re money is going.

One of the major issues is your ability to barter with yourself as far as money goes. Some argue that they’ll be able to save more but only when that better job comes around, so in the meantime they’ll spend freely and not worry about budgeting or your income as it relates to your expenses. Waiting for that big promotion is all well and good but that shouldn’t be your barometer as far as bargaining with yourself money wise.

Saving money also is more than just budgeting, too as you have to consider retirement and also that major expense or nest egg you keep ignoring. The latter ties in to a budget but if you believe you’re saving enough money, look to your savings account and see just how much you actually have set aside. And if that number is only a few dollars, go back to what you're spending money on and adjust accordingly. Cut if need be because having that extra money leftover only will help when a major home repair, car issue or other unexpected expense that creeps up when you least expect it.

Circling back to your budget, you also won’t have much luck saving money if you don’t know where your money is going. This means tracking spending down to the last dollar, even if you’re buying bottled water or breakfast sandwiches every day, that is money out of your pocket that should be accounted for when you tally everything up at the end of the month. Far too often, budgeting for most is just knowing that your car payment is due on the fifth of the month and the mortgage or rent is the 30th. That isn’t budgeting; budgeting is knowing without fail how much you’re spending and knowing how to spend wisely when you do it.

That could be something as simple as buying a used car and saving thousands of dollars versus new or knowing that you shouldn’t spend more than 30 to 40 percent of your total gross income on a house, as anything more than that would be overspending at its finest.

As much as saving money is a bottom line endeavor and you’ll be able to see if you have money or not, a lot of moving parts truly play into knowing just how much, if any, progress on saving you’re making.